Sunday, September 11, 2005

Annush die Hausfrau v 2.0

I love doing household chores. There are very few things around my place that I actually hate doing, those being bed making and mopping. Other than that, I do great with everything else when I actually have the time to do it.

My favorite things to do are laundry and food shopping.

With laundry I enjoy the entire process: the sorting, the soaking (I soak my whites in OxiClean for a while before I put them in the washer), the washing, the drying, the folding and even the ironing.

Grocery shopping is the best though because it requires me to go outside, pick out stuff I like and buy it. Because I live alone, I don't believe in buying stuff for the week. I change my mind a lot so whatever I buy runs the risk of going bad just because I won't feel like eating it. To avoid this, I have learned to once a week buy the stuff that I know I'll sooner or later eat (apple sauce, water, crackers, etc), though I only do this cause I love going to Whole Foods, and then everyday go to the supermarket to buy whatever I feel like eating that day.

The only problem I have with this is that as a result I have so many shopping bags I don't know what to do with them. This is a culture of abundance and because of this it is also a culture that allows for wasteful use of resources. Although normally when I go to the supermarket I bring my own canvas bag(s) like I learned to do in Europe, I don't always have it on me and it irks me when I go and buy a tomato and some mozarella and they hand it to me double bagged.

Today, when I went to drop off my recycling I thought that I would bring back their bags so that they could recycle them or something and you can imagine my shock when I saw them take them and throw them out!!!! We are talking about bags that were perfectly good. I tried to argue that one, but according to the fine people of Food Emporium, if bags are used once they are no longer usable. Meanwhile for one item you get 2 bags.

I'm not shopping there again. They obviously don't care about the environment.

But it's not just them either. Earlier today, before I went to the supermarket, I went to Duane Reade to get a new toothbrush because the little blue lines in mine are dangerously faded (I obsess about my teeth). While I was there I also bought a pack of hairclips and a deodorant. When the cashier gave me my stuff I noticed that it was double bagged. I took everything out of the bags, put it in my purse and the woman gave me a dirty look.

I think that everyone should do a little bit to help the environment. It doesn't take that much effort and all it requires is a little common sense. All that wasteful use of resources (not to mention money) is unnecessary. If we are going to brag about being a modern nation, we should catch up with the times and do our part in improving the situations that affect us today.

Will you marry me, or at least become my maid? :p I can handle mopping, although I think making the bed is pointless. Cleaning the sheets, yes. Making it look neat just so I can mess it up again, no.

I can understand groceries not wanting to reuse bags because you never know where they have been or what people have done to them. I don't think I would want my food stuck in reused bags. I do recycle though, and to deal with the bag issue I use them as trash bags instead of buying more plastic bags. Of course that leaves me with a handful of tiny trash bags instead of one big one, but since I also live alone it's not a big deal. I buy a lot of fresh stuff at the local version of Whole Foods, so I make a lot of trash runs while I'm at it.

I prefer to just carry as much out of the store in my arms as I can. you should see the bag boy's eyes when I cradle everything in my arms and say "no thanks, I'll just carry them".

then I dart out the front door... people think I'm stealing and start yelling. sometimes I drop things.. and they roll around, and I come back and pick them up after I throw everything in the front seat.

so far I haven't been arrested nor accosted by the police, but I feel its only a matter of time.

you love laundry? you're a better person than me! i did kind of like it in an ocd way before i had a child....that and staying home pretty much kills any love of laundry i had. but, i agree about the grocery store--they are so wasteful with the bags! i got home the other day, and the woman had put one piece of fruit in one bag, and p.'s deodorant in another bag. why?

I live in Atlanta. Whole Foods own Harry's Farmers Market in Atlanta. I love Harry's. My top grocer that I go to. But laundry, I hate it. You soak your clothes in OxiClean? How? Ironing, I take most of my clothes to dry cleaner. I am a male, so I hate laundry. I need to find a woman like you, just kidding. Well, I do. I am the worst doing laundry. Good clothes goes in washer, bad clothes goes in another. I am terrible with laundry.